
The 13th International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) Rio de Janeiro 2024, to be held May 25th to June 1st at Rio’s Modern Art Museum (MAM Rio) Cinematheque, has announced its Jury award winners.
SINCE: 2011
WHERE: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The first edition of the Uranium Film Festival finally took place in May 2011 in Rio de Janeiro. Today the festival is a global event with festival screenings around the globe from Rio to Berlin, Washington, New Delhi and Window Rock – highlighting all nuclear and radioactive issues: nuclear fuel chain, uranium mining, atomic bombs, nuclear power plants, nuclear waste deposits – from Hiroshima to Fukushima. The best and most important films of the year receive the Uranium Film Festival´s awards. Since the International Uranium Film Festival was held first time in Hollywood, in 2016, it is also known as The Atomic Age Cinema Fest.
International Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro
The 13th International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) Rio de Janeiro 2024, to be held May 25th to June 1st at Rio’s Modern Art Museum (MAM Rio) Cinematheque, has announced its Jury award winners.
The drama Valley of the Gods (Dolina Bogów) written and directed by Lech Majewski, starring Josh Hartnett, John Malkovich, Bérénice Marlohe, John Rhys-Davies, Jaime Ray Newman and Laura Ecas is the winner of the Best Feature Movie Award at the International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) in Berlin 2020.
TAILINGS directed by Sam Price-Waldman
Last May, the International Uranium Film Festival took place at the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro. And now for the first time, from September 26 to September 29, 2013, the festival is going to visit Munich, capital of Bavaria, Germany. The Uranium Film Festival is described as the world’s only festival devoted to the entire nuclear fuel chain: from uranium mining to nuclear waste, from Hiroshima to Fukushima and Fallujah!
A total of 44 films from 14 countries: Australia, Brazil, Germany, Estonia, India, Italy, Israel, Iran, Japan, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine and the USA – documentary, fiction, experimental and animated films, new comedies and science fiction – have been selected for the festival’s debut in Munich.
After screening 52 documentaries and fiction movies from 19 countries, May 16 to May 26, the 3rd International Uranium Film Festival of Rio Janeiro 2013 in the cinema of the Modern Art Museum (MAM) came to a close. Six films from six countries – Russia, India, USA, Estonia, Jordan and Germany – were honored with the Uranium Film Festival’s trophy, the Yellow Oscar. ATOMIC IVAN by Vasily Barkhatov from Russia won the Yellow Oscar 2013 for Best Feature Fiction Movie, and “NUCLEAR SAVAGE: THE ISLANDS OF SECRET PROJECT 4.1” by US-Filmmaker Adam Jonas won the Yellow Oscar 2013 for Best Feature Documentary.
The International Uranium Film festival was founded in 2011 in Santa Teresa, the famous artist quarter in the heart of Rio de Janeiro. The aim of the festival is to inform the public, from a neutral position, about nuclear power, uranium mining, nuclear weapons and the health effects of radioactivity.
The six award recipients are:
Best Feature Fiction Movie:
ATOMIC IVAN – Russia, 2012, 91 min, Director Vasily Barkhatov, Executive producer, Viktoria Gromik, TELESTO FILM
Best Feature Documentary:
NUCLEAR SAVAGE: The Islands of Secret Project – USA, 2012, 87 min, Adam Jonas Horowitz
Best Short Comedy:
CURIOSITY KILLS – Estonia, 2012, 14 min, Sander Maran
Best Short Documentary
: HIGH POWER – India, 2013, 27 min, Pradeep Indulkar
Best Animated Film: ABITA – Germany, 2012, 4 min, Shoko Hara, Paul Brenner
Best Student Film:
NO TO A NUCLEAR JORDAN – Jordan, 2012, 7 min, Solenne Tadros
Special achievement awards went to “Children of Uranium” (Romania), “Friedlich in die Katastrophe” (Germany), “Nuclear Waste” (Ukraine), “Unter Kontrolle” (Germany), “Der Bauch von Tokio” (Germany), “Hibakusha” (USA), “Hiroshima Nagaski Download” (Mexico/Japan).
Yellow Oscar to Atomic Ivan
“Atomic Ivan” is the
Best Feature Fiction Movie of the Third International Uranium Film Festival 2013. The 2012 produced film Atomic Ivan by VASILY BARKHATOV from Russia won the Yellow Oscar 2013 in Rio de Janeiro. The romantic comedy “Atomic Ivan” is a debut film of famous theatre director Vasiliy Barkhatov from Moscow based on the script of world-known playwright Maxim Kurochkin. The Shooting of the film took place at the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant, about 200 km North West of Moscow, and at the Leningrad Power Plant 70 km close to St Petersburg. It was the first time that Russian’s nuclear agencies opened their doors to filmmakers. “Atomic Ivan is a combination of Visual Art, Comedy, Love Story and pure Nuclear Science”, says Festival Director Norbert G. Suchanek. “Atomic love at a Russian power plant. Atomic Ivan is a beautiful, intelligent, romantic comedy, in the surrealistic stile that remembers me on Federico Fellini.”
Suchanek: “The basic Story of Atomic Ivan is simple. The director of a nuclear power plant invites an Artist to develop a play together with the nuclear workers at the nuclear power plant. Imagine: A Fellini opera in a real nuclear power plant. Beside of all that the films transports important worth full scientific information about nuclear power and radioactivity. So there was no way! This film had to win a Yellow Oscar of the Uranium Film Film Festival 2013.” The Executive producer of Atomic Ivan, Miss Viktoria Gromik from TELESTO FILM was present at the Award Ceremony in the Cinemateca of the Modern Art Museum (MAM) Rio de Janeiro. She said: “It is very important for us to receive this Award from the Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro.”
Yellow Oscar to Nuclear Savage
The November 2011 released documentary “NUCLEAR SAVAGE: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1” by US-Filmmaker Adam Jonas Horowitz is a brilliant accusation against a terrible crime. Atmospheric testing of atomic bombs and using local populations as guinea pigs are crimes against humanity. Nuclear Savage is a must-see documentary for everybody, no matter if your are in favour of nuclear power or against. Adam Jonas Horowitz shot his first film in the Marshall Islands in 1986, and was shocked by what he found there, in this former American military colony in middle of the Pacific Ocean. Radioactive coconuts, leaking nuclear waste repositories and densely populated slums were all the direct result of 67 Cold War U.S. nuclear bomb tests that vaporized islands and devastated entire populations.
Yellow Oscar to High Power
The 2013 finalized documentary “High Power” is an important, well made film that can give worthwhile impulsesto current “nuclear question” in India. For that it received the Yellow Oscar in the category best short documentary of the 3rd International Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro 2013. Pradeep Indulkar, director of “High Power”, is an Indian engineer, who has been working during 12 years for India’s nuclear program. High Power tells the disturbing story of the local population of Tarapur in the state of Maharashtra, where India’s first nuclear power plant was constructed in the 1960s. Local fishermen families lost there land, their fishing grounds and health. Pradeep Indulkar´s short documentary about the Tarapur Atomic Power Station had to be made. “It is an important, the nuclear discussion stimulating documentary, that comes at the right time, when thousands of people in South-India struggle against a new nuclear power plant at Kudankulam is the state of Tamil Nadu”, says Festival director Norbert G. Suchanek. “High Power is Pradeep Indulkar´s first documentary, and we hope to see more documentaries by him in future.”
“Apart from all the sorrows and distress my film brought to you, this is a golden moment of my life as a film maker”, said Pradeep Indulkar during the Award Ceremony in the Museum of Modern Art cinema. “At this moment I remember and thank all my friends and well-wisher who helped in making of High Power. I also thank to all those Indian people who contributed even a smallest amount to make our trip happened. I thank you all who supported this film with as a great audience. I thank Rio, I thank Brazil and I accept this award on behalf of all the nuclear affected people of Tarapur and I dedicate this award to all those farmers and fishermen who lost their land, home and life for nuclear power plant. “
Yellow Oscar to Curiosity Kills
Sander Maran is a promising filmmaker from Estonia. His 2012 produced short comedy ”Curiosity Kills” already received the Audience Award of Helsinki’s H2T Festival. Now it won the Yellow Oscar of the third International Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro in the category “Best short comedy”. Synopsis: “A 10 year old boy is fascinated by his father’s spooky looking chemistry suitcase and decides to play with its contents. One thing leads to another and the boy’s pet rat ends up attacking the family. Curiosity kills.”
“Films about radioactivity are normally boring for teenager and students”, says festival director Norbert G. Suchanek. “Curiosity Kills is different. It is trashy comedy, which made the festival udience, mainly students from upper-class colleges, laugh and scream. And beside of that, curiosity kills gives valuable information: Radioactivity is dangerous and can change the genetic code of living beings. And every radioactive material must be stored and handled with great care. If not, the consequences can be terrible.”
Yellow Oscar to Abita
The best Animated Film of Rio de Janeiro’s Uranium Film Festival 2013 is,
ABITA, a beautiful animated film directed and produced 2012 in Germany by Shoko Hara and Paul Brenner from the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg in Ravensburg. This animated short film deals with the dreams of Fukushima children who can’t play outside because of radioactive contamination. Brazilian Professor for animated film and festival judge Leo Ribeiro: “I selected Abita, because it is a very poetic and sensitive movie and very well done.”
Yellow Oscar to No to Nuclear Jordan
Best Student Film of the 3rd International Uranium Film Festival is “
NO TO A NUCLEAR JORDAN” by young director Solenne Tadros from the International Academy-Amman. Student productions about nuclear issues are still very rare – especially in the Middle East. The Yellow Oscar 2013 is given to Solenne Tadros to stimulate other film students and film schools world-wide to follow here example to deal with this for human mankind important but very complicated and often risky nuclear issue. In addition the festival jury hopes that “No to Nuclear Jordan” will improve the public discussion about Nuclear Energy in the Kingdom of Jordan, where the construction of nuclear power plants and uranium mining are in the planning.
via International Uranium Film Festival
[caption id="attachment_1890" align="alignnone" width="552"]THE ATOMIC STATES OF AMERICA, USA[/caption]
The 3rd International Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro selected 48 films from 16 countries as finalists for this year’s festival at the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) Cinema. The films will compete for 3 Yellow Oscar Awards: Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, Best Animated Film
Uranium Film Festival 2013 Finalists (Title / Country/ Director)
FEATURE
ATOMIC BOMB HOME – Japan, 2012, Katsumi Sakaguchi , 65 min – world premiere ATOMIC IVAN – Russia, 2012, Vasily Barkhatov , 91min
ATOMIC MOM – Japan/USA, 2010, M. T. Silvia, 80 min
CHILDREN OF URANIUM – Romania, 2009, Adina Popescu, 64 min
CESIUM IBLODET – Sweden, 2009, Lars Westman, 70 min
DER BAUCH VON TOKYO (Tokyo’s Belly) – Germany, 2013, Reinhild Dettmer-Finke, 70 min – world premiere DOUBLE HAPPINESS URANIUM – Australia, 2012, Cole Larsen, 87 min – world premiere
FORBIDDEN GROUND FUKUSHIMA – Japan, 2012, Kazunori Kurimoto, 57 min – world premiere
FRIEDLICH IN DIE KATASTROPHE (Quietly into the Disaster) – Germany, 2012, Marcin El, 120 min
HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI DOWNLOAD – Mexico/Japan, 2010, Shinpei Takeda, 73 min
IRAK: LES ENFANTS SACRIFIÉS DE FALLUJA (Falluja: A lost generation?) – France, 2011, Feurat Alani, 48 min NUCLEAR SAVAGE: The Islands of Secret Project – USA, 2012, Adam Jonas Horowitz, 87 min
THE ATOMIC STATES OF AMERICA – USA, 2011, Don Argett, Sheena M. Joyce, 92 min
THE ULTIMATE WISH: ENDING THE NUCLEAR AGE – USA, 2012, Robert Richter, 40 min
THE FOUR CORNERS: A NATIONAL SACRIFICE AREA? – USA, 1983, Christopher McLeod, 58 min
U 4 URANIUM – Australia, 2011, Astral Jester, 72 min
UNDER CONTROL (Unter Kontrolle) – Germany, 2011, Volker Sattel, 98 min
URANIUM – TO DIE FOR (HaZman Hatzahov) – Israel, 2012, Shany Haziza, 54 min – world premiere URANIUM PROJECT – Italy, 2011, Alan Gard e Stefania Prandi, 43 min
SHORT
ACOUPHENES (White Noise) – France, 2004, François-Xavier Drouet , 17 min
ANATOMIA DI UNA BOMBA – Italy, 2006, Flaviano Masella, Angelo Saso, Maurizio Torrealta, 22 min ATOMIC FOOTPRINTS – Australia, 2006, Pip Starr, 14 min
BLACKWATER – Spain, 2012, Karlos Alastruey, 4 min
CAETITÉ – Brasil, 2013, Laura Pires, 35 min
CURIOSITY KILLS – Estonia, 2012, Sander Maran, 14 min
ENOLA – Germany, 1986, Christoph Boekel, 28 min
EXCLUSION ZONE – Spain, Omar Kardoudi , 13 min
FUOCO AMICO: RITORNO NEI BALCANI – Italy, 2010, Terra Project Photographers, 10 min GET UP STAND UP – India, Sreemith, 34 min
HALBWERTSZEIT (Half Life) – Germany, 2012, Anne-Katrin Kiewitt, Alice von Gewinner, 20 min HIGH POWER – India, 2013, Pradeep Indulkar, 27 min – world premiere
KINTYRE – Australia, 2012, Curtis Tylor, 15 min
NO TO A NUCLEAR JORDAN – Jordan, 2012, Solenne Tadros, 7 min NUCLEAR WASTE – Ukraine, 2012, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, 25 min RETORN OF NAVAJAO BOY EPILOGUE – USA, 2008, Jeff Spitz, 15 min TAILINGS – USA, 2012, Sam Price-Waldman, 12 min
WAR ́S DUST – URANIUM BEIRUT – Italy, 2007, Flaviano Masella, Angelo Saso, Maurizio Torrealta, 23 min WOMEN OF FUKUSHIMA – Japan/Australia, 2012, Paul Johannessen, 27 min
YURI’S OMEN – Spain, 2012, Jordi Montornés, 14 min
ANIMATION
ABITA – Germany, 2012, Shoko Hara, Paul Brenner, 4 min
FAIRLIGHTS – Germany, 2013, Ilinca Höpfner, Helge Henning , 10 min, world premiere
HERR HOPPE AND THE NUCLEAR WASTE – Germany, 2011, Jan Lachauer & Thorsten Löffler , 4 min HIBAKUSHA – USA, 2012, Steve Nguyen, Choz Belen, 54 min
MOAB – Israel, 2012, Keren Zaltz, 3 min
SLOUCHING TOWARDS YUCCA MOUNTAIN – USA, 2011, Eve-Andrée Laramée, 17 min
THE LAST FLOWER – Iran, 2013, Sima Baghery, 6 min
Further selected films – not part of the Competition
BUDDHA WEEPS IN JADUGODA – India, 1999, Shriprakash, 55 min
WHEN THE DUST SETTLES – UK, 2011, 7 min